WEBSTER AND KOSSUTH 



A DISCOURSE 
ON THE RELATIONS OF 

DANIEL WEBSTER AND LOUIS KOSSUTH 



EUGENE PIVANY 

FORMERLY EDITOR OF 'ONALLAS' 



1909 

LATIN PRESS PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO. 

336 W. GIRARD AVE.. PHILADELPHIA 







PRR.SK.\Tr:i) ISY 



WEBSTER AND KOSSUTH 



A DISCOURSE 
ON THE RELATIONS OF 

DANIEL WEBSTER AND LOUIS KOSSUTH 



BY 

EUGENE PIVANY 

FORMERLY EDITOR OF "ONALLAS" 



1909 

LATIN PRESS PRINTING & PUBLISHING CO. 

336 W-IGIRARD AVE., PHILADELPHIA 



^:s' 



COPYRIGHT 

1909 

'BY EUGENE TI^ANY 





HEN Louis Kossuth, Ex-Governor of 
Hungary, arrived in the United 
States, in December, 1851, to thank 
the American iDeojDle and Govern- 
ment for his liberation from con- 
finement in Turkey and to enlist their aid in 
the expected renewal of Hungary's struggle for 
independence, the President of the United 
States was Millard Fillmore. He had been 
elected Vice President, but on the untimely 
death of General Taylor had to assume the re- 
sponsibilities and duties of Chief Executive. 
Although possessing many admirable qualities, 
he was not a man of exceptional intellectual 
force or brilliancy of mind, and had in his 
youth few facilities for education. One of the 
Hungarian refugees remarked, indeed, in his 
diary, how they were astonished at President 
Fillmore's unfamiliarity with European his- 
tory. The real leader of the country's foreign 



policy was Daniel Webster who, then for the 
second time, graced the office of Secretary of 
State. 

Louis Kossuth undoubtedly fills a much 
larger place in the history of Hungary than 
Daniel Webster does in that of the United 
States ; besides, Providence made them run too 
different courses of life, to afford a just basis 
of comparison. Yet there are two character- 
istic facts in the lives of these giant minds, 
which bear so striking resemblance that in a 
discourse on their relations they cannot be over- 
looked. 

They both were the greatest orators their 
respective countries had ever produced. 

And they both devoted their whole lives to 
the same high ideal : nationality. 

Daniel Webster to the development of the 
then still vaguely felt oneness of the American 
people as an indivisible nation, which he saw 
only too well was gravely menaced by the spirit 
of nullification and secession. Louis Kossuth 
to the full re-establishment of Hungary's sepa- 
rate national existence which, between the rav- 
ages of the Turk and the misgovernment of 
Austria, had become well-nigh illusory. 

All who have ever heard Mr. Webster speak, 
were indelibly impressed by his presence. Al- 



— 5 - 

though of no extraordinary height, he was 
generally spoken of as a giant, and the mere 
look of his wonderful eyes sufficed to enchant 
his audience. Mr. Kossuth, though somewhat 
shorter of stature, had these same remarkable 
attributes. That mysterious faculty, personal 
magnetism, he possessed probably in a higher 
degree than Mr. Webster, and many Americans, 
drawn irresistably by his magic power of elo- 
quence, followed him from place to place like 
planets their life-giving sun. 

This is all the more marvelous, as he had to 
address the American people in a language ac- 
quired only after reaching manhood. At the 
age of thirty-five he incurred the displeasure of 
the Austrian Government for his journalistic 
activity and was thrown into prison. The first 
twelve months he was refused the use of books, 
but during the remaining two years of his cap- 
tivity he was allowed to read books not per- 
taining to politics. So he asked for a set 
of Shakespeare, an English grammar, and 
Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary. He sat 
down without knowing a single word, and be- 
gan to read the ' ' Tempest, ' ' working for a fort- 
night to get through the first page. He had, 
he said, a certain rule never to go on reading 
anything without perfectly understanding what 



— 6 — 

he read; so he went on, and by-and-by became 
familiar with the rules and idioms of the Eng- 
lish language. He had no opportunity, how- 
ever, to jmt his knowledge to a practical test, 
and during the next eleven years, up to his de- 
parture for the United States, he had probably 
not met a dozen people whose mother tongue 
was English. In fact, so little did he suspect 
his extraordinary power in the use of English, 
that he wrote his Address to the People of the 
United States, dated Broussa, March 27, 1850, 
still in Hungarian and had it translated by a 
friend in America. To any one who has tried 
to master a foreign tongue, his unparalleled 
triumph in Great Britain and America as an 
orator, hardly a year later, must then seem lit- 
tle short of a miracle. 

Although he spoke Latin fluently, that tongue 
having been still extensively used in Hungary 
in his youth as the medium of intercourse 
among the cultured and learned, he preferred, 
like Mr. Webster, to employ Anglo-Saxon words 
instead of Latin derivatives. From his great 
master, Shakespeare, he had acquired a stock 
of half-obsolete or archaic words which he 
could use with striking effect. But the chief 
elements of his success as an orator were,' be- 
sides his magnetic personality, the sublimity 



— 7 — 

of the thoughts he espoused, the original group- 
ing of facts, clarity of statement, lucidity of 
expression, purity of diction, and the judicial 
use of religious and poetic language, appealing 
both to the intellect and the emotions of his 
hearers. 

Mr. Webster's public connection with the 
Kossuth or Hungarian question began with his 
speech in Faneuil Hall, in November, 1849, in 
which he, then Senator from Massachusetts, 
paid glowing tribute to the Hungarian heroes, 
severely arraigned Eussia for her intervention 
in behalf of absolutism, and threatened her with 
the vengeance of the whole civilized world, 
should Kossuth 's life be taken. 

The next year witnessed his remarkable en- 
counter with Chevalier Hiilsemann, the history 
of which may be briefly summed up in the fol- 
lowing : 

The people and Government of the United 
States followed with great interest and anxiety 
the extraordinary events that took place in 
Europe in 1848 and 1849, and particularly the 
struggle of the Hungarians. They saw in them 
the dawning victory of their highest political 
ideals, of the very principles and institutions 
on which the existence, progress and prosperity 
of their own countrv were founded. In the 



8 



course of time they came to look upon the Hun- 
garians not only as the fearless defenders of 
their own liberties, but also as the champions 
of human liberty in general, on whose success 
or failure depended the liberation of the Italian 
and other races in the Southeast of Europe 
from despotism. The symi^athy for Hungaiy 
was so general and intense that President Tay- 
lor deemed it wise to send a "special and con- 
fidential agent," in the person of Mr. Ambrose 
Dudley Mann, of Virginia, to Hungary. His 
instructions were to report the actual condition 
of affairs in Hungary, with the view of recog- 
nizing her independence, should she be able to 
establish a de facto government, sufficiently 
strong to warrant such an act. Mr. Mann sent 
sixteen reports to his government, but while 
all the other papers, relating to the Hungarian 
mission, have been published without hesitancy, 
the Department of State, to the detriment of 
historical research, still refuses to permit the 
contents of these sixteen reports to become 
known. This is all the more incomprehensible, 
as the incident occurred sixty years ago, has 
no bearing whatever on present-day politics, 
.and belongs now to history. 

We know, however, that Mr. Mann was pre- 
vented by the Austrian authorities from enter- 



- 9- 

ing Hungary, (be said so himself in a subse- 
quent interview with Mr. Kossuth, mentioned 
by the latter in his Memoirs) ; and his presence 
there would have been, indeed, of little use, 
since through the brutal intervention of Rus- 
sia the issue had been practically decided be- 
fore his arrival in Vienna. 

In September, 1849, the news that the Presi- 
dent had sent a special agent to Hungary on a 
secret mission somehow became known and was 
published in a New York newspaper. Chevalier 
J. G. Hiilsemann, the Austrian Charge d 'Af- 
faires at Washington, sent a clipping of the 
article to the Foreign Office in Vienna, think- 
ing, no doubt, to have furnished it thereby with 
a bit of interesting, if not valuable, informa- 
tion. Plow great must have been his astonish- 
ment, when he received a reply from Prince 
Schwarzenberg, from which it appeared that 
the latter had been cognizant of Mr. Mann's 
mission, in fact, had a copy of the American 
agent's secret instructions. He expressed his 
painful surprise at the American Government's 
conduct, and gave his idea of America's motives 
in the following words: '^Was it in return for 
the friendship and confidence which we have 
never ceased to manifest toward the Govern- 
ment of the United States, that the latter was 



-10- 

waiting impatiently for and souglit to hasten 
the moment, when it could profit by the down- 
fall of the Austrian Monarchy and sell a few 
bales of cotton more at the expense of her ex- 
istence?" 

Then followed some boasting of Austria's 
great resources, her historical perseverance in 
defending her just rights, her splendid "strug- 
gle of twenty-five years" against the French 
revolution, her devotion to ''the principles of 
order," etc. But in spite of America's grave 
offence. Prince Schwarzenberg was willing to 
be lenient this time, should the American Gov- 
ernment promise to behave in the future. 

Such is the tenor of this remarkable exhibi- 
tion of Austrian statesmanship, which con- 
cludes with authorizing the Chevalier to com- 
municate its contents, if he think it proper, to 
those whom it may concern. 

Chev. Hiilsemann did not lodge at once an 
official protest, but left the letter with Mr. Der- 
rick, Chief Clerk of the State Department, pre- 
sumably in order to ascertain first how an 
official complaint would be received. Later he 
had a conversation with Mr. Clayton, then 
Secretary of State, who became convinced that 
Prince Schwarzenberg had surreptitiously ob- 
tained a copy of Mr. Mann's instructions. He 



— 11 — 

then told the Austrian Charge that should lie, 
as he threatened to do, address an official eom- 
nnniication on the subject to him, he (Clayton) 
would be compelled to inquire into the mode 
by which the Imperial Government obtained a 
copy of a letter, confidentially addressed by the 
xVmerican Government to one of its agents. 

This had its effect, at least for the time being. 
But in March, 1850, the Senate passed a reso- 
lution, requesting the President to place all 
papers concerning the Hungarian agent on the 
table of the Senate, if not incompatible with the 
public interest. The request was complied with 
in the same month, and some of the papers, in- 
cluding the instructions to Mr. Mann, were then 
made public. Now it was Chev. Hiilsemann's 
opportunity to make his complaint without be- 
ing open to the charge of having obtained his 
information through improper channels. It is 
not quite clear why he waited fully six months 
before doing so; probably he wrote again to 
Vienna for advice. 

His protest was addressed to the new Secre- 
tary of State, Daniel Webster. In reference to 
Mr. Kossuth, he thought it offensive to his 
Government that this rebel chief was spoken 
of in the letter of instructions as an illustrious 
man. He closely followed the phraseology of 



— 12 — 

Prince Scliwarzenberg's letter, mentioned 
above, but wisely omitted the reference to the 
sale of a few more bales of cotton. Instead he 
added some more boasting, assumed to speak 
also for Russia, declared that the American 
Government had exposed Mr. Mann to being 
treated as a spy, and intimated that the Im- 
perial Govermnent could retaliate in case of 
the repetition of America's misconduct. 

The air of arrogant superiority, which per- 
meated it, made this otherwise ludicrous pro- 
test highly offensive. Mr. Webster was greatly 
angered by it, and decided to administer a fit- 
ting rebuke. 

His reply, known as The HulsemoMn Letter, 
is unique in the history of diplomatic corre- 
spondence and will ever remain a classic piece 
of xlmerican literature. It is a splendid de- 
fense of the principles of popular govermnent 
as contrasted with absolutism. He takes up 
aoid brilliantly refutes the Chevalier's state- 
ments and conclusions one by one, employing 
all through a dignified irony that is all the more 
stinging. To the boasts, it is true, he replies 
with counter-boasts, but they have in the vast 
extent and rich resources of America a better 
foundation than the Chevalier's. He proves 
the legitimacy and propriety of Mr. Mann's 



— 13 — 

mission, and adds that, had the Imperial Gov- 
ermnent subjected him to the treatment of a 
spy, the spirit of the people of tliis comitry 
would have demanded immediate hostilities to 
be waged by the utmost power of the republic, 
military and naval. 

"In respect to the honorary epithet bestowed 
in Mr. Mann's instructions on the late chief of 
the revolutionary Government of Hungary, Mr. 
Hiilsemann will bear in mind, that the Govern- 
ment of the United States cannot justly be ex- 
pected, in a confidential conununication to its 
own agent, to withhold from an individual an 
epithet of distinction to which a great part of 
the world thinks him worthy, merely on the 
ground that liis own Govermnent regards him 
as a rebel. At an early stage of the American 
revolution, while Washington was considered 
by the English Government as a rebel chief, he 
was regarded on the Continent of Europe as an 
illustrious hero. ' ' 

Mr. Webster said later himself that his letter 
was somewhat boastful and rough, but the coun- 
try at large approved of it with enthusiasm and 
thought that the rebuke was well deserved. Mr. 
Clayton, his predecessor in office, wrote him a 
congratulatory letter, which he closed with the 



— 14 — 

wish of ''many more such victories over the 
Agents of Despotism." 

Negotiations witli the Sublime Porte for the 
release of Louis Kossuth and his associates and 
their transportation to the United States in a 
public vessel, were opened by Secretary Clay- 
ton and the American representative in Con- 
stantinople, Mr. Marsh, in January, 1850, but 
they were renewed and brought to a successful 
conclusion only in the following year during 
Mr. Webster's incumbency. Mr, Webster's in- 
structions to Mr. Marsh are well worth reading 
as an able expression of noble sentiments. 

The Austrian Government feigned displeas- 
ure at this turn of affairs, which it manifested 
to the world by hanging Mr. Kossuth in effigy 
on the very day of his embarkation on the U. S. 
frigate Mississippi, September 10, 1851. In 
reality, it was glad to see so dangerous an op- 
ponent transferred across the sea, where he 
would be cut off from the revolutionaries of 
Europe and could do less "mischief" than in 
or near Europe. 

Mr. Kossuth, well understanding this, made 
a short stop in England to confer with his 
friends, and then proceeded on his journey to 
America, where he arrived December 4, 1851. 

Of his reception in New York I shall not 



— 15 — 

speak at length on this occasion. In overflowing 
popular enthusiasm, in the demonstrations of 
respect and affection, in the military and civic 
honors paid to him, it was not surpassed by the 
reception given by the iVmerican people to any 
other man. All America, official and unofficial, 
united in doing him honor. 

When the Government of the ITnited States 
intervened with the Porte in behalf of Mr. Kos- 
suth and the other Hungarian exiles, it was 
actuated purely by sentiments of humanity. 
The American people wished to save these true 
patriots from martyrdom on an Austrian scaf- 
fold, they offered them an asylum in their own 
free country, and passed a law authorizing the 
free distribution of land among the political 
refugees. These were noble deeds, which no 
Hungarian can remember without a feeling of 
profound gratitude, and which will ever re- 
dound to the glory of the American people. 

But how little Mr. Webster and the American 
Government fathomed the depth of Mr. Kos- 
suth's patriotism, is apparent from the fact 
that they expected him, though they never said 
so publicly, to come to America like any other 
immigrant," settle down and care no longer for 
the fate of his down-trodden country, of whose 
fight for liberty and independence he had been 



-16 — 

the providential leader. Mr. Kossuth's efforts 
to enlist America's aid in the struggle, which 
he confidently hoped would soon be renewed, 
were perfectly consistent with, in fact, were the 
loarical outcome of, the stand the American peo- 
ple and Government had taken toward Hungary 
duvinsT the precedina: two years. 

Mr. Webster hnd the greatest svmpathy for 
Hunsfarv's aspirations and was fullv convinced 
of the riarhteousness of her cause. The princi- 
ples enunciated in his famous speech on the 
emancipation of Greece ar)r)lied equally well to 
the case of Huna'Rry. This sDeech was often 
ouoted. even bv Mr. Kossuth himself, and Mr. 
Webster in the presence of IMr. Kossuth de- 
clared that in tliese principles and in the ones 
avowed in the Hlilsemann Letter, "there was 
that which he could never part from without 
departino: from himself." He, however, re- 
jected the doctrine of Intervention for Non- 
intervention, which Mr. Kossuth endeavored to 
have promulc-ated by the National Government, 
but refrained from makinar anv -public state- 
ment on the subject. For he believed — as he 
wrote to Mr. McCurdy, Charge d 'Affaires in 
Vienna — that the "Intervention" feeling, 
which was very strong in the Northern States, 
"will doubtless subside gradually and rapidly, 



— 17 — 

if nothing should take place calculated to kindle 
it into new flame." Fortunately or unfortu- 
nately, no event of such a character occurred 
in the next six months, and the "Intervention" 
feeling did gradually die away. 

Mr. Webster's j^osition in the whole affair, as 
head of the State Department, was very embar- 
rassing. The relations with Austria had been 
very much strained. After the fall of Hun- 
gary, the Government had been attacked in 
both houses of Congress for not having recog- 
nized, in time, the independence of Hungary 
which might have given a different turn to 
events. Later, General Cass, of Michigan, 
moved in the Senate the suspension of diplo- 
matic relations with Austria, and his motion 
was ably seconded by Senator Foote, of Mis- 
souri. The interposition in behalf of the Hun- 
garian refugees and the Hiilsemann Letter did 
not tend to improve matters. Chev. Hiilse- 
mann, with his excitable temperament and hec- 
toring conduct, made himself thoroughly ob- 
noxious to the American Govermnent, and Mr. 
Webster was, at one time, "much inclined to 
signify that his presence here (Washington) 
was not longer desirable." After Mr. Kos- 
suth's arrival in America, Chev. Hiilsemann 
harassed Mr. Webster with protests, but the 



— 18 — 

latter generally found some more or less in- 
genious pretext for refusing to consider them. 
With great skill he managed to swim with the 
stream of popular opinion, without bringing 
the relations with Austria to a decisive rupture. 

In Washington Mr. Webster, as Secretary of 
State, presented Mr. Kossuth to President Fill- 
more, who bade him welcome in a polite but 
colorless speech and gave a dinner in his honor. 
The two Houses of Congress welcomed him to 
the country and the capital by joint resolution, 
and he was introduced by committee to both 
Houses. 

Members of both Houses gave a public din- 
ner in his honor, at which Mr. Webster was also 
present. The speech Mr. Kossuth delivered on 
this occasion was, at least as far as rhetoric and 
poetic language is concerned, his crowning mas- 
terpiece. This is how he began : 

''As once Cyneas, the Epirote, stood among 
the Senators of Rome who, with an earnest 
word of self-conscious majesty, controlled the 
condition of the world and arrested the mighty 
kings in their ambitious march, thus full of ad- 
miration and of reverence I stand before you, 
Legislators of the new Capitol, that glorious 
hall of your people's collective majesty. The 
Capitol of old yet stands, but the spirit has de- 



— 19 — 

parted from it and come over to yours, purified 
by tlie air of liberty. Tlie old stands a mourn- 
ful monument of the fragility of human things : 
yours as a sanctuary of eternal rights. The old 
beamed with the red lustre of conquest, now 
darkened by oppression's gloomy night: yours 
beams with freedom's bright rays! The old 
absorbed the world by its own centralized glory ; 
yours protects your own nation against ab- 
sorption, even by itself. The old was awful 
with irrestricted power: yours is glorious with 
having restricted it. At the view of the old, 
nations trembled : at the view of yours, human- 
ity hopes. To the old. Misfortune was only in- 
troduced with fettered hands to kneel at the 
triumphant conqueror's heels: to yours the 
triumph of introduction is granted to unfortu- 
nate exiles, invited to the honor of a seat. And 
where Kings and Caesars never are hailed for 
their power, might and wealth, there the per- 
secuted chief of a down-trodden nation is wel- 
comed as your great Republic's guest, precisely 
because he is persecuted, helpless and poor." 

No one had ever spoken to American states- 
men like this before. Eveiy word of this grace- 
ful and poetic tribute to the moral greatness of 
America went straight to the heart of his 
hearers. The Rev. C. M. Butler, a gentleman 



— 20 — 

by no means friendly to Mr. Kossuth, thus de- 
scribed the effect of this speech : 

"At the Congressional dinner given to M. 
Kossuth his reception was most enthusiastic. 
In common with all the audience, I was com- 
pletely entranced by his singularly captivating 
eloquence. I was assigned a seat next to Mr, 
Seward, and his demonstrations of applause by 
hands and feet and voice were excessive. The 
'Hungarian Whirlwind' certainly carried away 
everything on that occasion, and mingled all 
parties into one confused mass of admirers, 
prostrate at M. Kossuth's feet. 

' ' The speech seemed to me wanting in no ele- 
ment of a consummate masterpiece of elo- 
quence. The orator's picturesque appearance, 
bis archaic English style, his vibrant and 
thrilling voice, and his skillfully selected and 
arranged topics, all concurred in the production 
of an effect upon his audience such as I have 
never seen surpassed. As addressed to Amer- 
ican statesmen, it exhibited what was very rare 
among foreigners, a perfect understanding of 
our government, as the union of separate 
states with their autonomy in a given sphere, 
under a general constitution." 

It was felt that there was but one man in 
America to make a reply worthy of such elo- 



— 21 — 

quence : Daniel Webster. It was probably 
due to his ill health that on this occasion 
he fell behind his own best efforts, and that 
his reply bore no comparison with his cele- 
brated speech on the Greek revolution and the 
Holy Alliance, although the principles treated 
were practically identical. But, however that 
may be, about one thing there can be no differ- 
ence of opinion: paying no heed to Chev. 
Hiilsemann's protests, he freely voiced his and 
his country's true sentiments, concluding with 
these words : 

''We shall rejoice to see our American model 
upon the Lower Danube and upon the moun- 
tains of Hungary. But that is not the first step. 
It is not that which will be our first prayer for 
Hungary. The first i)rayer shall be that Hun- 
gary may become independent of all foreign 
power; that her destinies may be entrusted to 
her own hands and to her own discretion. 

"I do not profess to understand the social 
relations and connections of races, and several 
other things that may affect the public institu- 
tions of Hungary. All I can say is, that Hun- 
gary can regulate these matters for herself 
infinitely better tlian they can be regulated for 
her by Austria : and therefore I limit my aspi- 



— 22 - 

rations for Hungary, for the present, to that 
single and simple point: 

"Hungarian independence: Hungarian con- 
trol of Hungary's destinies: and Hungary as a 
distinct nationality among the nations of Eu- 
rope. ' ' 

This was more than the already exasperated 
Chev. Hiilsemann could bear. Contrary to 
diplomatic usage, he addressed himself directly 
to the President in a doleful French epistle, 
complaining of Mr. Webster's "hostility" to 
him and characterizing the Hiilsemann Letter 
as "a revolutionary manifesto and a fanfaron 
appeal to all perturbers of the public peace of 
Europe." President Filhnore, waiving all 
ceremonies, gave him an interview, and ex- 
plained to him that Mr. Webster had appeared 
at the Congressional Banquet in the capacity 
of a free American citizen, for whose utter- 
ances the Government could not be held respon- 
sible. This was not satisfactory to the Cheva- 
lier, and he left Washington in a rage. After 
the subsidence of the Kossuth fever he was, 
however, in a more conciliatory mood, and re- 
sumed his duties at Washington. 

Mr. Webster was twenty years the senior of 
Mr. Kossuth, and when they met, the latter was 
in the meridian and the former in the last year 



— 23 — 

of his life. They cherished for each other the 
sincere admiration always inspired by genius. 
But, though their ideals were similar, no closer 
friendship sprung up between them, owing 
partly to the difference in their ages and to the 
reserve forced upon Mr. Webster by his official 
position. Mr. Webster departed this life three 
months after Mr. Kossuth's return to Europe. 
The latter always kept him in grateful memory, 
and in his Memoirs, written thirty years later 
in his exile, remembered him with genuine ad- 
miration. 




